Music Monday: Madness by Muse
Music Monday: Madness by Muse
It feels like “madness” is in the air lately. Carrying on that theme, today’s song is “Madness” by Muse. Between the day, the title, and the band, the alliteration is everywhere—completely unintentional, but it works!
The song was inspired by a fight you may have with your girlfriend, so it’s about reflecting on that fight. You can really hear the rawness in the lyrics. The word “Madness” is held for a very long time before the word is finished—stuttering like you’re upset at the start of a fight or retelling the fight. Given how much tension people seem to be feeling with family and friends lately, it felt like the perfect follow-up to my last post on Metallica’s “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” which was about truth and honesty when a system goes wrong. This is more about when a relationship between humans goes wrong. It’s about love, really—the madness we feel when in love.
While The 2nd Law is a wonderful album full of clever tracks, “Madness” acts like the index. It feels like the heart and soul, distilling elements from all the other songs and blending them together. You can hear clear echoes of artists like Queen and Depeche Mode, both of whom the band admit inspire them and their music.
It is honestly a classic and a stroke of musical genius. You can tell the band put all the effort into the song. Powerful yet simple, taking samples from everywhere and bringing them together. It reminds me of a concept album—telling a story, but a much deeper story at play here too. It starts off with a synth-rock sound before flowing into an argument between two lovers. Each part is simple, yet together it is woven into a complex sound. It doesn’t just sample what the album is about, but delivers it in its own sound, ending on a high note with “I need to love.”
Watch the music video below and you’ll see it is set in a subway. Two people are sitting with their backs to each other with chaos unfolding in the background as riot police deal with a protest or riot. With the girlfriend walking away, you see rioters unfolding the madness as the song lyrics talk about madness. The timing of the shots here is perfect, followed by an image of her walking past her boyfriend who is sitting on the train. It speaks about how he tried to let her go, which carries on as they talk about love and each other coming close, but not close enough to reconnect. At the same time, the police act as a metaphor for the madness and chaotic nature of the fight. Toward that image, with the couple touching each other, it leads us to them coming to terms with the fight.
Finally, you have the colours: neon and dark. The blues and purples show how bright the passion is, yet how cold it is afterward. The video truly explains what the song is about.